The Contemporary Music Days festival brings an unprecedented - by Greek standards - line-up of eighteen concerts dedicated to contemporary musical creation, running from 25 October to 14 November 2026 at the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC. Titled Multiple Presents, the Festival features six new commissions from Greek composers, numerous premieres and reruns, as well as tributes to emblematic figures in 20th-and-21st-century music. It is a musical event of rare range and polyphony, highlighting the vibrancy of contemporary music and inviting audiences on a fascinating journey through its diverse aspects, new trends, and unexpected pathways.

This multifaceted programme, curated by composer Ioannis Angelakis, maps contemporary musical creation, spanning acoustic and electronic music as well as hybrid and stage works, through the coexistence of renowned ensembles and artists, newly formed groups, and emerging soloists and composers.

It features, among other things, tributes to György Kurtág, György Ligeti, and Georges Aperghis; concerts by the Ergon Ensemble conducted by Nicolas Vassiliou; the ERT Choir's first collaboration with the Greek Composers' Union; the TETTTIX ensemble; and an anniversary concert by the ARTéfacts ensemble. The events also include a piano recital by Stephanos Thomopoulos, unfolding the piano world of Giorgos Koumendakis; the screening of the milestone film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari accompanied by music by Nikos Karagiannis; and the new international composition competition Re:Trace.

«The Contemporary Music Days Festival was born out of a dual need: on the one hand, to create a steady place dedicated to contemporary musical creation, and on the other, to reexamine what «contemporary» means today. It was not meant to signal a mere time category but to serve as a way to relate to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries: to modernism, the avant-garde, as well as to the ruptures and continuities that still shape our experience of sound. In this line of thinking, the Contemporary Music Days Festival does not propose a single aesthetic or a linear narrative but rather an open field of coexistence in which different readings of the past and present are continually recaptured. Special emphasis will be placed on tributes to György Kurtág (marking his 100th anniversary), Georges Aperghis (celebrating his 80th anniversary), and György Ligeti (commemorating the 20th anniversary of his death), which bring emblematic works of contemporary music back to the foreground, not as historical references but as contemporary touchstones from which the new commissions draw material, inspiration, and artistic vision. The collaborations with the ERT Choir and the Greek Composers' Union enhance the logic of an expanded ecosystem in which contemporary music is shaped by networks of people, ensembles, and institutions» notes Ioannis Angelakis.

7 November 2026 · Starts at 18.30

Works by Giorgos Koumendakis, Claude Debussy, Gérard Pesson, Domenico Scarlatti, Maurice Ravel

Stéphanos Thomopoulos piano

This recital explores the piano music of Giorgos Koumendakis, centred on his cycle Mediterranean Desert and complemented by works from different periods of his career. In Stéphanos Thomopoulos' hands, the programme unfolds as a single narrative in which nature, memory and soundscape are in constant dialogue.

At its heart is Mediterranean Desert, a cycle in which the animals, plants and organic textures of the Mediterranean landscape become sonic objects and musical miniatures. From Mediterranean fish and herbs to delicate portraits of insects and tiny organisms, nature is rendered as a finely detailed, almost microscopic world of sound.

Alongside it, landmark works of the piano repertoire serve as points of reference and contrast: Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, Debussy's 'La Cathédrale engloutie' and sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. The recital ends with a work by Gérard Pesson, which places contemporary European writing within the same reflective frame.